Years ago, I came across these ah-MAZING bagels at my local grocery store—chock full of nuts, seeds, and dried cranberries, they were hearty, lightly sweet, and utter perfection.

They were also seasonal, much to my dismay.

My pleas to the bakery staff did no good. They had no control over which bagels were baked each day. But, they said, the same dough was baked into bread loaves, if I was interested in that.

I was absolutely, most certainly interested, so I wheeled my cart over to the bakery breads in a hurry. But then I saw the price—almost $5 for a half loaf. HALF of a loaf. Something that might not even last one day in my household of six. Something that had the potential to leave me snarling things like “No bread for you!” to the rest of my family.

Since familial harmony is important to me, and I do like to share all the good foods with my kids (or, at least, most of them…it’s possible I have a stash of really good dark chocolate that is Adult Only), I slowly and sadly wheeled away. *womp womp*

But then I realized…I could just make it myself. The bread version, not the bagels. I have yet to find a bagel recipe I love, and since bagels are a serious time commitment (and take up serious fridge real estate as well), I rarely make them. But bread? I bake bread every week. All I had to do was figure out a recipe that would result in this hearty, dense, slightly sweet breadalicious perfection.

Scouring my cookbooks, I came across a recipe in the Biggest Book of Bread Machine Recipes* that I could use as a starting point. (Once upon a time, I had a bread machine and it handled all of my bread making. This cookbook was a great resource because it is chock full of excellent recipes, and I especially loved the fact that they all required just one teaspoon of yeast rather than the usual 2 or more. The recipes can easily be made by hand, as well, you just have to figure out how hot and how long to bake them. I simply look up the time and temperature of similar handmade breads, and go with that.)

Many tweaks later, I had a working recipe of a seriously delicious (and nutritious) hearty bread brimming with whole grains and dried cranberries. Suh-WOON. One of the sweetest parts? As soon as you’re done mixing the dough, it goes right into a greased and floured bread pan for just a single rise—no punching down and rising again.

Simple? Yes. Irresistible? You betcha.

And that may be the only drawback to this bread—it’s ridiculously difficult to stay out of it. That’s because it’s delicious any way you eat it—plain, toasted and buttered, cream cheesed, peanut buttered, etc. It’s the perfectly healthy alternative to satisfy a sweet craving with a whole lot less sugar (and a heck of a lot more whole grains, fiber, and protein) than those cookies and cakes you’re trying not to eat at this time of year. (Was that mean of me to link to our growing selection of scrumptious sweets? My bad.)

It does require a few unusual ingredients that you may need to stock up on before you bake. But, hey, it’s probably time for a grocery run anyway, right? And if your grocery store has a bulk foods section, you may find the millet, quinoa, cracked wheat (aka bulgur), sunflower seeds, and sesame seeds there, where you can buy the amount you want. Don’t be scared of the long ingredients list—trust me on this, you won’t regret it. I love me a short ingredients list like whoa, and will sometimes look at a long one and think uh…no, too many things, too complicated, but this recipe is so simple, you just about toss everything into a bowl and mix it.

Your body will thank you for the plethora of whole grains, your taste buds will thank you for the deliciousness. But, if you have kids, you may want to make more than one loaf, for as soon as my kids saw it come out of the oven today, they said, “Mom, is that your special cranberry bread? Ooh! I want some!”

Thank goodness I made two. <3

Hearty Ancient Grains Bread

A hearty, nutrient-dense, slightly sweet yeast bread packed with healthy whole grains and dried cranberries.

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Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 35 minutes minutes

Rising Time: 3 hours hours

Total Time: 50 minutes minutes

Course: Bread

Servings: 1 loaf

Ingredients

Volume - Weight

• 1 1/4 cup milk, warm (not hot) (can substitute water or vegan milk)
• 2 Tablespoons butter or oil
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1 Tablespoon honey (can substitute maple syrup)
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon fast-acting yeast
• 1 Tablespoon cracked wheat (bulgur)
• 1 Tablespoon sesame seeds
• 1 Tablespoon millet
• 1 Tablespoon quinoa
• 1/4 cup ground flax seeds (flax meal)
• 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
• 1 cup dried cranberries

Instructions

• Grease and flour an 9" bread pan. Set aside.
  
• Warm milk so it just feels warm to the touch, not hot. Add butter/oil, maple syrup, and honey.
  
• In a mixing bowl, combine flours, salt, yeast, and whole grains except for the sunflower seeds and cranberries. With mixer on low, slowly pour liquid into dry ingredients, and mix until well combined. Add sunflower seeds and cranberries. Let your mixer knead the dough for several minutes or do it by hand.
  
• Dough will be a little sticky, so sprinkle with a small amount of flour and form into a smooth log. Place in prepared bread pan, then cover with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel. Set in a warm spot to rise for about 3 hours.
  
• When dough has risen into a nice, smooth loaf, preheat oven to 350 F/177 C. Bake for 35 minutes. After removing from oven, let loaf sit in pan for about 5 minutes to allow sides to release. Then tip loaf out of the pan and place it on a wire rack to cool completely. Slice thin and keep in an airtight container. Will keep for about a week at room temperature. For longer storage, freeze in a zip-top bag. 
  

Notes

Recipe heavily adapted and expanded from Spiced Maple and Cranberry bread from Biggest Book of Bread Machine Recipes.

*Biggest Book of Bread Machine Recipes is an Amazon affiliate link.